Thank you for this great post over at Not Dabbling in Normal You’ve inspired me to consider the lists in our lives a little more deeply.

Do you have a “to do” list…or does your spouse have a “honey do list” for you? Do you use multiple lists or different areas in your life? Perhaps one for groceries, one for repairs, one for homestead upgrades, one for hobby wants/needs, etc?

I would be lost without my lists, and my wife would definitely also be lost without hers. I am a techy-type, so prefer to keep my lists on my iPhone’s “notes” app or as calendar entries on my Mac. Tanya prefers the large coiled scribbler method. In fact, I am actually writing this blog post in the Notes app…after having added the “lists” idea to my list of blog post ideas….

We most definitely have a number of different areas to build and manage lists from We were able to knock a few off the various lists in 2011, including:

-clear land
-build coop
-get chickens
-get rooster
-get feather plucker
-learn to process chickens
-fencing and fencing and fencing (this one is definitely not complletely finished yet…)
-get pigs
-get rabbits (well..only one doe so far…so that item is also still on the list….)
-provide heat sources for the aforementioned critters…and also keep their various water dishes in a liquid state throughout the winter
-learn how to and make yogurt

Plenty of items on 2012’s list, including:

-get more rabbits
-build rabbitry and rabbit arks
-put in garden
-more fencing and cross fencing
-begin compost piles from all the critters “night soil”
-look at worm bins (as our 2011 worm bin didn’t work out too well!)
-dig a well
-determine and implement alternative heat sources
-explore solar and/or wind power options
-dig a dug out/pond
-consider ducks
-consider goats
-learn how to and then dehydrate food
-learn how to and then can food
-learn how to and then preserve meat through smoking, etc

OK…so here we are, Day 2 of our brand new blog…and I am already rather confused. To begin with, thank you to those of you who have already reached out to welcome me to the blogosphere. This is an exciting and intimidating frontier for me, and I am looking forward to learning and growing in this space. In my business life…I tend to be a perfectionist, however I am wondering whether that will be achievable in my blogging life….?

Having been a consumer of many varied blogs for several years now…I have come to appreciate a number of different styles and subjects. For me, a friendly narrative voice is most appealing, as opposed to authoritarians’ or blogo-dictatorships’…. I will strive to maintain that friendly narrative voice as well, and definitely welcome your constructive criticisms if and when I swerve from that path. I will also try to include an interesting picture or two where possible, ideally with some relevance to the subject at hand. Mind you, I am not too sure what that image will be for this post though…guess we will have to wait and see what I find…..

Now, why the “dazed and confused” title today? In addition to all of my regular daily activities, I now find myself trying to learn and understand the logic and processes behind WordPress in all of its glory. Other than actually having been able to successfully post a blog entry…I am not doing too well in the process learning department! I have found myself becoming frustrated with seemingly odd (to me, at least) steps and processes required to allow me to change things, add things, delete things, etc (such as widgets, formatting, text wrapping around photos….)

To compound that, when I try to comment on other blogger’s blogs I am now asked for login credentials, which I happily enter, only to receive a bouncing dialogue box and an error message. Thinking that I had misunderstood or mistyped, I tried this again…and again… Well, perhaps I need to use the email address and not my user name…nope. What about my blog name, maybe that will work? No, foiled again. After 20 minutes of this, including logging-out of all the WordPress windows currently open…I still could not log into anothers’ blog to post a comment. Logging back into WordPress, however, was a breeze with no issues. So…what am I missing? It is asking me for my WordPress login…but won’t accept my WordPress login….. Definitely open to suggestions here!

Also..what is with all of the rules around advertising, affiliates, link sharing, etc…. Is this only WordPress who has these rules or is it all blogging platforms? I have seen many blogs over the years with affiliate links, Amazon-recommendations, banner advertisements, etc. Granted, today my blog is nowhere near the stage where advertising or sponsorships are viable, but one day however it would be nice to have grown this into a thriving community and perhaps then those sorts of things might be of use. My concern is that if I start with WordPress and build on WordPress…what happens down the road when is time to explore those options? I really only want to have to learn this system once…and then have it grow with me as I grow with it…. Once again, I am open to your suggestions here as well….

Another question I have is the subject of domain names. Thanks to GoDaddy, we own http://www.northernhomesteader.com . Currently though, that is the extent of it…simply a piece of undeveloped web real estate waiting for content. When is the right time to switch http://www.northernhomesteader.wordpress.com to http://www.northernhomesteader.com ? Now, before too many people have found it at the current address? Or do I wait until we have built up a number of followers and then risk losing some of them? Also, once we decide to take the leap, who is best to host that domain? I have heard good things about both FatCow and HostGator. GoDaddy also offers to host, and so does WordPress…. Once again…I am definitely open to any suggestions or advice that your combined voices of experience may be able to lend….

Finally…how do you suggest I grow my readership? Are there any great tips that you might share, or directories that I should list my blog in? Thanks again!